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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23717560">Your Ship Is Your Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniseNalci/pseuds/AniseNalci'>AniseNalci</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>7KPP Quarantine Prompts [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (Visual Novel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Other</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:54:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,039</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23717560</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniseNalci/pseuds/AniseNalci</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-Summit. As a child, the Hise Pirate knew she was meant for the seas. Even as she fell into many mishaps on her mother's ship.</p><p>Written in response for 7KPP Prompts (Day 2: Soar).</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>7KPP Quarantine Prompts [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1708210</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Your Ship Is Your Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Unbeta'd so feel free to point out mistakes.</p><p>Title is from 'Sailor, Your Home Is The Sea' by Lolita, way back in to 60s! </p><p>Character guide:<br/>- Lorena: Hise Pirate<br/>- Violanta: Hise Pirate Lorena's mother, an even more renowned pirate<br/>- Lorena's father/Violanta's husband: He isn't given a name here, but going with the Twilight thing I'm sure Azalyne subconsciously had going on with Wellin and Arland - c'mon, (Car)Lisle, Jasper, Emmett? - I'm going with Edward, sue me</p><p>N.B.: I swear I only just realised this just now! XD</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She was seven, and all she wanted was to be like her mother. She nimbly raced up and down her mother’s ship; or rather, one of her many ships, for she had quite a few. She was barely able to contain herself; so excited was she for the coming journey.</p><p>“Violanta! Where is Lorena?” she heard the panicked voice of her father rising over the humdrum of the shipworkers.</p><p>“Darling! How should I know? She was with you last!”</p><p>“She ran after you, Violanta! I could not stop her!”</p><p>“She… You could not stop our little girl?” Her mother’s voice said calmly.</p><p>This was how it was. Her father – gentlemanly and kind, usually so composed – would lose his well-bred demeanour at the slightest provocation of his Wellin sensibilities. Her mother – a wild, untamed Hisean beauty, who laughed in the face of stuffy propriety – would then take the reins with a calm, unruffled mien. Unfortunately for her father, Violanta was a pirate of renown, and therefore their home was the seas around Hise, rather than a lovely sprawling estate in Wellin.</p><p>Lorena had overheard that her parents’ match was certainly unusual. It was a long story that only partially (and not completely) involved sailing, and so to her seven years of age, it was boring. But she’d heard from some of the sailors that it was something called romantic, even if their match was a strange one, especially since Violanta essentially ruled the household. Apparently, this was <span class="u">Not Done</span>. Lorena did not give it too much notice. As long as her father let her run around to her heart’s content, did it really matter who was the head of the household?</p><p>Not that they had a household. They had her mother’s ships. With masts and shrouds so high, it touched the sky. One day, she would have her own ships, and climb the masts, and touch the sky. The wind would blow in her hair, and she would feel like she was soaring…</p><p>Actually, why wait for one day, when she could do it today?</p><p>She sneaked around and found the main mast. With surprising agility for a seven year old, she climbed high, and nearly reached the top…</p><p>“<strong><em>Lorena!</em></strong>” Came an unearthly shriek.</p><p>It was, of course, her father.</p><p>He was not quite a tiny speck at the bottom, but then, she was not quite so high yet. She had barely reached half-way up the mast. She looked down and gave him a grin. “Papa!” she cried in delight. “Look at me! I’m almost at the top!”</p><p>“Lorena, my love, come down now!”</p><p>There was a bit of commotion going now, as the shipworkers paused in their work to gape at the monkey-like seven year old daughter. This did not deter her from trying to climb up further. “But papa, I’m so close to the top! I could soar!” She tried to wave at him with one hand, but nearly lost her footing. Her father turned pale.</p><p>“Maybe I’ll wave at you when you’re near the top!” she smiled cheekily and tried to climb higher. It was becoming more and more difficult though.</p><p>“Look at the little monkey child! Girl’s a sailor through and through!” One of the crew shouted, and the rest cheered.</p><p>“Of course I’m a sailor! I’m just like my mother.”</p><p>Her father was shaking now. She did not understand why he was trembling like a leaf in the wind. <em>Poor papa</em>, thought the unrepentant little Lorena. <em>He does not understand. What was it mama said? He does not have the call.</em></p><p>It was getting more difficult to climb up, and she was getting tired. It was very difficult to reach the top, but she couldn’t stop now, she’d fall!</p><p>Lorena was beginning to feel the tiniest bit afraid now.</p><p>Suddenly there was a shadow and a thud sound. Something landed a bit higher. A rope fell near her and extended to the ground.</p><p>She looked up. <em>Mama!</em></p><p>“You little rascal,” her mother smiled from above. She had a rope from which she was hanging from. How did she get it? How did she get there?</p><p>“Mama, how did you get up so high? You weren’t even on the mast!”</p><p>“A pirate does not reveal her secrets until due time, dearest!” Violanta laughed at her child’s confusion. “Now, I’m going to climb down, careful I don’t step on you child!” Violanta climbed down in such a way that she was covering Lorena’s figure on the mast. “Here, I want to you hold on to me and we’ll go abseiling down the mast. How does that sound?”</p><p>“But I’ll fall!”</p><p>“Now is no time to be lily-livered, darling child. Here, I’ve got you.” There was some clever manoeuvring, and Lorena faced her mother. “See if you can wrap your arms around my neck, and we’ll slide down, okay? You’re safe now! Do you understand?”</p><p>Lorena nodded.</p><p>“Very well!” And suddenly there was a drop, and there was a scream.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>“That was so fun, mama!”</p><p>“Was it now, you cheeky monkey?”</p><p>“Yes, although the best part was when papa screamed!”</p><p>“I thought I would have a heart attack,” her father said softly. He was still trembling, despite all three of them being safely ensconced in the captain’s cabin. Lorena was buzzing from the exhilaration of abseiling with her mother, and her mother seemed as unperturbed as ever.</p><p>“A heart attack sounds awful, papa. What is it, and why would you have one?” Lorena asked him, curiously.</p><p>Her father only gave a faint smile in response. “I think I need to lie down.”</p><p>“Of course, dearest,” her mother said. She brought him a cup of tea and set it down near his side of the bed as he waddled there to lie down, looking as though he had never gained his sea legs. Once he lay down, she kissed the forehead of her supine husband. “Rest well. I’ll have a chat with the little monkey.”</p><p>Her father sighed, but he leaned into her mother’s kiss.</p><p>“Now, child, let’s go out and have a bit of a conversation.”</p><p>“Okay!” Lorena followed her. Adventuring with her mother! That was quite a treat.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It was still bright and sunny outside, but the commotion had died down, and instead they could hear only the sound of the ship and the wind. The crew themselves where silently working, focusing on navigating the ship to their destination. Lorena watched it all with rapt eyes.</p><p>“Well, monkey, suffice to say, you scared your father with that last stunt you pulled.”</p><p>“I didn’t mean to scare him,” Lorena said, feeling a pit of guilt deep in her belly. “Why would he be scared? Plenty of people have climbed masts. <em>You’ve </em>climbed them.”</p><p>Her mother laughed. “Yes, that is true, although I am a fair bit older than you, my dear child. I also have sailed a fair bit greater, and I know this ship well. You don’t quite have the same experience.”</p><p>“Experience?”</p><p>“You’ve not done it as many times as I have.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“Your father was afraid you’d fall and hurt yourself.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t!”</p><p>“No one intends to fall and hurt themselves, and yet people do,” her mother said placidly. “I was worried myself; that is why I joined you.”</p><p>“You, mama?” Lorena turned to face her mother with wide eyes. “But you’re not afraid of anything!”</p><p>“It does seem so, doesn’t it? I must confess, however, I’m deathly afraid that either you or your father may get hurt. I don’t think I’d recover. That’s why you must be a bit more careful. In time, I’ll teach you how to be a great sailor, although I think that comes to you naturally.”</p><p>“I <em>am</em> your daughter,” Lorena said proudly, and her mother laughed and patted her head.</p><p>“Why of course! And it is in your blood, how to steer a ship, how to navigate the stars, how to love the sea. There is nothing quite like the freedom of the sea, after all!”</p><p>Lorena nodded, entranced by her mother’s words. One day, she would freely roam her the seas, unhindered, and her heart felt like it would soar. One day.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>“The child’s over the figurehead! She’s going to fall into the sea!”</p><p>That one day turned out to be the very next day, when she thought she would climb the figurehead, only to lose her footing and dangle from it.</p><p>“Mama!” she cried.</p><p>The anchor was thrown overboard, and the crew stopped their activity. The ship stilled.</p><p>It seemed like forever. Lorena’s grip suddenly slipped and she was falling, falling, falling…</p><p>“Child overboard!”</p><p>For one brilliant moment, she felt free, soaring, even as she fell into the sea.</p><p>She straightened her body out, trying to fall as her mother taught her once, so that it was as least painful as possible. There was an eerie silence, before there was the deafening splash of her hitting the seas. She swam for the surface, gasped for air, trying to ignore the sting of the salt water over her eyes, and began to tread water.</p><p>A rope was thrown overboard, and with the agility of a fish in water, she swam to it and grasped it for dear life. A few quick tugs, and she was back on the ship.</p><p>“Silly goose!” Her mother scolded her. “What did I tell you?”</p><p>Her father had run out in all the commotion. He saw her drenched from head to toe, and held on to the rails for support, as he made his way towards her, nearly collapsing as he fell onto his knees in front of her, hugging her for dear life. “You are <em>not </em>to leave my sight. Lorena! You could have drowned!”</p><p>“But I didn’t, papa!”</p><p>“What if no one had heard or seen you falling over the ship? My dearest, only think of the danger you were in! Come with me, we need to get you dried!”</p><p>“Am I in trouble?” Lorena asked, worried.</p><p>Her father burst into tears as he dragged her into the captain’s cabin.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Her father was silent as she was changed into dry clothes and wrapped in blankets. She was given a cup of hot tea and sat on the bed. She was very distinctly not given cocoa, her favourite, so she knew it was bad.</p><p>“Papa, are you mad?”</p><p>Her father made no reply for a long time, which frightened her. Eventually he let out a long-suffering sigh. “Yes, child, I am. I am mad, I am angry, I am infuriated, but more than that, I am terrified. I am terrified that I realise how little equipped I am for protecting you.” He sat next to her and hugged her. “I love you so much, do you know? Both you and your mother are the most precious things in the world to me, and yet I am so little able to protect you both. Both you and your mother are at home in a ship sailing rough waters, and both of you seek the thrill of adventure. It is what I love most about your mother and you, but it scares me because I have never been raised to that, nor do I have any personal wish to live my life dangerously, though I love travel as much as both of you. These last two days of you being on the ship has reminded me that I cannot cage you up like a bird, but instead I must let you soar free in the open skies. I’m just afraid,” (here his voice cracked) “I’m just afraid that perhaps if I let you roam too freely, you may not return. Maybe because you’re hurt, because I couldn’t protect you.”</p><p>He kissed her forehead. “I want you to enjoy life, and all it has to offer. I just ask that you be careful, my dearest.”</p><p>“Of course, papa.” Lorena’s face brightened. “I love you too! And remember papa!”</p><p>“Remember what, darling?”</p><p>“Birds may fly wide and free, but even birds return to their nest!” She kissed her father’s cheek. “Now can I go back out?”</p><p>Her father laughed. “Maybe tomorrow. For now, how about some hot cocoa?”</p><p>She let out a shriek of delight.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em> <strong>Fin</strong> </em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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